### 224

The smell of spilt Chagarashi blood makes your horse whinny with fear. You draw on your Magnakai Discipline of Animal Control to calm him, and you rally Quang and the Watchers with a stirring battle cry you know they will respond to: ‘For Chai!’

The Skarada are now fast closing in around the open barn doors. They are armed with flint axes and long-bladed bone daggers. You dig your heels into your horse’s flanks and jolt him forward in a desperate effort to escape before the Skarada can block the exit. Your horse is back under your control and he responds at once to your actions. He bolts through their closing ranks and you gallop away along the muddy farm track. Quang and the Watchers follow in your wake. The snarling Skarada slash and stab at them as they race out of the barn, forcing to them run a deadly gauntlet before they can get away.

You come to the end of the farm track and turn your horse to the east. When you look back towards the barn, you are relieved to see that all of your companions have escaped and are galloping along the track towards the farm entrance. By the time the Skarada reach the farm’s split pine fence, you are all racing along the highway in the pelting rain with your heads down and your cheeks pressed close to your horses’ necks.

Only when you can no longer see the farmstead and the Skarada do you signal to Quang and the others to bring their horses to a halt. Your mounts are breathless and their sweaty flanks steam in the pouring rain. Your companions, too, are weary. They slump in their saddles and struggle to regain their composure. Quang comes forward and halts his horse alongside yours.

‘That …  was a close thing,’ he says, gasping for breath. ‘We’ve you to thank for getting us out of that barn alive.’

Then you hear a loud splash behind you and immediately you sense that something awful has happened.

Turn to 65.